Q: I wondered why Gordan Johncock did not receive his Baby Borg and assumed it was because it was a different era, but then I saw Mario’s on the 100 days to Indy. Why did Gordy not have a Baby Borg?
Alexander
MP: Mr. Johncock is the latest to receive a Baby Borg. Borg-Warner’s leadership, with constant urging from Borg-Warner’s Steve Shunck, have been making and presenting Baby Borgs to the Indy 500’s great for many years now and, rather than do it all at once, they tend to do one or two a year for the legends of yesteryear. Unlike these days, they weren’t given out to winning drivers and team owners, so it’s a passion project for Shunck and Borg-Warner to retroactively honor our heroes with Baby Borgs.
Q: Some of the greats have expressed a dislike of, and hence avoidance of, competing on ovals with IndyCar or its predecessors. I grew up in an era when greats grasped the nettle and won, though one of my all-time favorites, having tried in practice, decided not to put the helmet on again.
“Shall we paint some trees on the walls?” his mechanics asked, as said driver had no qualms of averaging Indy speeds on the full Spa and Monza circuits with just the odd barrier to try to arrest a full on flight into the trees.
What is it do you think that presents the scenario for some, even champions, to take it on, and others salute them for doing so but say no thanks?
Peter Buckleigh
MP: Comfort in their primary discipline and fears of the unknown. Just as most of us cringe at the idea of eating french fries with mayo, most non-American drivers have no appetite for the strange and seemingly dangerous form of racing we do on ovals.
Take a Lewis Hamilton, the greatest of his generation, a multi-zillionaire, with nothing left to prove, and ovals seem to have no appeal. Trying an IndyCar or NASCAR weekend on a road course? That would be fun and within his core discipline where it’s just a case of applying a lifetime of skills to a very different car.
And then you have my favorite kind of driver, the Fernando Alonsos and Dan Gurneys and Mario Andrettis who want to drive everything at all times. Some see boundaries in life where others, thankfully, do not.
Q: I have question regarding street circuits and circuit selection. When series are evaluating potential suitors for race venues, I’ve heard many times that F1 “couldn’t go there without massive upgrades, etc. or that it’s not a Grade 1 circuit”, yet they seem to be OK with setting up a street race just about anywhere.
What are the requirements to be a Grade 1 circuit and what are the requirements for a street circuit? This primarily applies to F1 seemingly, but there are similar arguments brought up for permanent road courses and IndyCar. One of which I’ve seen/heard is for Road Atlanta – there is ‘not enough run off’? Is it really the case that Road Atlanta in its current state would be any less suitable for an IndyCar than the Nashville street course? It just seems like there are conflicting standards for what is considered an acceptable race course for a given series.
Now, let’s just call Road America a street course and bring the F1 teams over 🙂
Alan
MP: I’m always happy to help with insights, but when it’s something as complex as researching and preparing a dissertation on the FIA’s various track certification methods and criteria for the Mailbag, I’d suggest spending the necessary hours conducing personal research on the topic.
Yes, the idea of a driver losing control at Road Atlanta’s Turn 1 at 200mph and flying over the catch fence and ending up 500 feet into the woods is very different than anywhere a high-speed crash would be managed at Nashville.
[ED: To elaborate a little, the full list of requirements for Grade 1 certification is excruciatingly long. At a basic level they lay out a minimum length and width for the circuit, minimum requirements for barriers, runoff and other safety features, track markings, pitlane specifications and billions of sub-clauses defining everything from banking angles to the permissible radius range at the first corner. One of the main differences between Grade 1 (i.e. F1) and Grade 2 (basically anything else) are the heightened requirements for peripheral infrastructure such as media and broadcasting facilities, expanded medical facilities and all the other stuff that goes into supporting thousands of people who are needed to make a grand prix happen – MG].
Q: When F1 goes to America, Max Verstappen always wins. Why is he so good in America? Why is Logan Sargeant struggling?
Also, back in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and into the ‘90s there used to be about 60-70 entries a year for the Indianapolis 500. Why aren’t there many entrants as there used to be?
Finally, with soccer legends Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia and Lionel Messi going there soon (maybe) and F1 having a race there, will NASCAR or IndyCar ever hold a race in Saudi Arabia despite its horrible human rights record?
Kurt Perleberg
MP: Let’s not kid ourselves about your last question: Racing is a gigolo with zero standards. If someone’s willing to pay a racing series a silly amount of money to hold an event, racing will go to that place and put on an event. And if holding sporting contests in countries with terrible human rights was banned, there would be no sports.
Regarding Indy entries, we’re talking about decades where anyone could enter almost anything. Make a car at home in your garage, grab a V8 from a junkyard to bolt into the thing, or buy one of the readily available Offenhauser four-cylinder motors, or repurpose a jet engine from a helicopter, and as long as your car passed the minimal safety standards and complied with a thin rulebook, you were on the entry list. When you’re free to do almost anything you want, you attract a wide array of dreamers and business folks who can afford to give Indy a try. When every single aspect of competing at Indy must be funneled through strict channels, where almost everything is spec and there’s no guarantee of being able to get a tire or engine lease, you have a much smaller entrant base.
CHRIS MEDLAND: Put simply, the reason Verstappen always does well in the U.S. is his car! Max is clearly one of the most talented drivers ever seen in F1, but he’s now got the car to back it up. He always seemed to like COTA as he’s so good in high-speed sectors – so the first sector there and the first sector in Miami really suit him–- but his first win in the States still only came in 2021 when he had the car to fight for the title, and Lewis Hamilton pushed him hard in that race.
Then last year Verstappen was impressive winning in Miami – again utilizing that strength in the high-speed and better tire management – but he had a dominant car by COTA, and the same this year when again, the difference between he and Perez was all in the first sector.